Bronx Health REACH Test & Trace Team (T2) Continue with COVID-19 Outreach

 

T2 team members Cheikhou Ann and Felix Rojas (far right above) and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. at a COVID-19 outreach event in the Bronx. 

Bronx Health REACH's Test & Trace (T2) team has been distributing signage and information about where people can go to get a COVID-19 test and/or COVID-19 vaccination. The Bronx Health REACH T2 team has distributed over 96,000 masks and hundreds of posters and palm cards to over 400 Bronx churches, mosques, schools,  bodegas, barber shops, supermarkets, nail salons and other Bronx businesses. COVID-19 webinars have been held with schools and community organizations.

To date, the Bronx Health REACH T2 team has assisted in getting over 5,000 vaccinations administered through community vaccine events in the Bronx. There were events held at the Institute for Family Health's Stevenson Family Health Center, the Dominican Food Festival, Darou Salam Islamic center, University Spanish Seventh Day Adventist and Fatima African Braiding Salon to name a few. These amazing efforts have been accomplished through the T2 outreach team consisting of Cheikhou Ann, Joseph Ellis and Felix Rojas and the recent team additions Barbara Toledano and Abigail Baah. 

This success has happened in the face of the challenges of misinformation and disinformation as shared here by one of our outreach team members. "We were doing an outreach event in Castle Hill. There was a mobile vaccination bus and the Mayor was there as well," says Cheikhou Oumar Ann, T2 team member.  "As I was doing outreach two women came up to me and asked, 'Why are you bringing this (the COVID-19 vaccination) here? They pulled the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, and now you are bringing it to our neighborhood to kill the Black people.'

As a trusted messenger within the Latino community, community outreach worker and T2 team member Felix Rojas provides support for those he has scheduled for COVID-19 vaccinations. "I have a responsibility to those I refer to vaccination sites, so I provide my phone number, and after someone gets their vaccine I make sure they are okay."

Even though there can be some challenges, many organizations and community members appreciate the work our T2 team has done. Here was an email T2 team member Joseph Ellis received from a Bronx Day care after delivering palm cards and masks: "This is a friendly thank you for the supplies you have provided us today. We thought it was a very kind gesture that will help the community a lot, especially now in pandemic time."

Focus groups and street surveys have been held to identify concerns community members may have in getting the COVID-10 vaccine. A Vaccine Community Advisory Board created in May, has been providing strategic guidance and direction on outreach to the unvaccinated. Training and support for ten community partners to increase our community outreach and engagement is underway.

Bronx Health REACH and Others Call for Expansion of the Healthy Bodega Program

 

Council Member Vanessa L. Gibson and others call for an expansion of the Healthy Bodega Program.

We were encouraged when in April, Bronx Health REACH, BronxWorks, the Bodega and Small Business Group joined Councilmember Vanessa L. Gibson calling for an expansion of the Healthy Bodega program. This call came on the heels of an understanding at the time that proposed legislation was being drafted that would create a license for bodega owners who attended trainings on best practices to become a H.E.R.O. bodega (healthy, educated, responsive, and operational).  

We have subsequently learned that the proposed legislation has hit a roadblock and there is currently no sponsor nor continued drafting. Disappointed? We certainly are.  Have we given up hope?  Absolutely not. We will continue to work with the Bodega and Small Business Group, food advocates and our legislators to create a business environment that will support the selling of healthy foods in bodegas in the Bronx and across the city. 

In 2015 Bronx Health REACH partnered with the Bodega Association of the United States (renamed the Bodega and Small Business Group) and its ally, the Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network, Inc. (HITN) to launch its revamped Healthy Bodega Initiative which had been initially created more than a decade before to address the obesity epidemic plaguing the Bronx’s most vulnerable neighborhoods.

The revised Healthy Bodega Initiative provided bodega owners with the tools and information to make offering healthy food and drink options a successful business in the high need, low income Bronx communities. 56 partner bodegas participated in the initiative.

“There’s no denying that there’s a strong correlation between the lack of access to healthy foods and increased health risks in our community,” said Councilmember Gibson. “I fully support an expansion of this program because it empowers and enriches our bodega owners, many of who are immigrant entrepreneurs who have disproportionately been affected by COVID-19.”

“We need our leaders to come together to support this initiative and help our community,” said Frank Marte of the Bodega and Small Business Group. “One day we can say the Bronx is one of the healthiest counties in New York State.”

Other organizations supporting the Bodega program expansion include Bronx Community Health Network, #Not62 Steering Committee, the New York State Hispanic Coalition, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the National Hispanic Coalition Chamber of Commerce.

Mindful Eating for the Beloved Community

 

Chef Alex Askew leads a cooking session for Mindful Eating for the Beloved Community.

Members of Bronx Health REACH’s Faith-Based Outreach Initiative: St. Helena Catholic Church, Word of Life International, Walker Memorial Baptist Church, Church of God of Prophecy, and Sacred Heart Church have been participating in the first cohort of Mindful Eating for the Beloved Community, a program put together in partnership with BCA Global and the Interfaith Public Health Network. The program is based on the book Mindful Eating for the Beloved Community, a collection of essays compiled by BCA Global President and CEO, Alex Askew.

The program began with an interview Chef Alex conducted with Fr. David Powers from St. Helena Catholic Church about what it means to build the Beloved Community through mindful eating, and why it’s particularly important for lifting the Bronx out of its rank of 62/62 in health factors and health outcomes in New York State. The nine-session program includes skill-building in mindful eating, and cooking demonstrations by Chef Alex Askew featuring healthy ways of preparing traditional favorites (including power shakes, turkey lasagna, black beans and corn, and desserts).

Also included is the opportunity for personal reflection to enable healthier lives, social change and a deeper connection between body, mind, and spirit. The fourth session delved into the history of sugar, going back to its origins in sugar plantations, colonization and the slave trade. After learning about these ugly historical origins to our current food system, in the remaining sessions participants will learn ways to become involved in building the Beloved Community envisioned by The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., through creating a food system that is rooted in health and food justice. 

Webinar Marks The Fifth Anniversary of #Not62

 

A webinar was held to mark the fifth anniversary of #Not62: The Campaign for A Healthy Bronx!

2020 would have marked the 5th anniversary of #Not62: The Campaign for a Healthy Bronx, but like everything else, COVID-19 shut down the plans to mark this milestone. This Spring we were finally able to mark this occasion with an exciting virtual gathering to celebrate this milestone. As we gathered, Bronx elected officials, community based organizations, residents, farmers, community organizers, food justice advocates, and health care organizations among others, we took a look back at what we had done over the past 5 years. When the first County Health Rankings Report was released on February 17, 2010, the Bronx was ranked as the unhealthiest county of the 62 counties in New York State. Shortly after, New York State Senator Gustavo Rivera and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. launched the Bronx Change Attitudes Now (CAN) Health Initiative. Other community based organizations came together to expand efforts to help the entire borough, and in 2015 the Bronx was awarded the Culture of Health prize from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).

"Winning the Culture of Health prize was a big deal for us," says Borough President Diaz Jr. "Since then we have been working and making progress, offering more Health Bucks at more farmers markets in the Bronx."  Oliva Little from RWJF shared, "The Bronx is one of the largest communities to receive the Prize. We were impressed with the New Settlement campus and how elected officials and community organizations worked together to create green spaces, access to the waterfront, and using data as a call to action." Senator Gustavo Rivera and Dr. Jane Bedell spoke about their first meeting and how Senator Rivera was unable to find a healthy snack at a local bodega. "We should be angry that we are the unhealthiest county, and I would like the Bronx to be #1, not #62," said Dr. Bedell.

Bronx Health REACH's Mickelder Kercy presented key elements of the Bronx's ranking in the 2021 County Health Rankings and Roadmaps Report. He pointed to the improvements of the ranking of Healthy Behaviors, going from 52 to 28 and improvement in Life Expectancy, from 58 to 39. And, more importantly, we looked forward to the future. Dr. Nick Freudenberg, Distinguished Professor of Public Health at CUNY and Director of CUNY's Urban Food Policy Institute and the keynote speaker, asked the virtual audience to time travel with him to the Bronx in 2026 where diabetes and obesity rates were significantly reduced and more Bronx residents were living healthier lives. He implored us to believe that strategies in place now and strategies we can design and implement for the future can result in a new, healthier, no longer ranked 62, Bronx.

Bronx Borough President Reuben Diaz, Jr. seemingly also envisioned that 2026 Bronx because he remarked, "Like the Little Engine, we can make a difference and be a model for other cities in improving their health."

Street Renaming in Honor of Pastor Robert Lewis Foley, Sr.

 

Grand Avenue and 190th Street in the Bronx has been renamed Pastor Robert Lewis Foley Sr Way.

On July 24 a portion of Grand Avenue near the corner of 190th Street in the Bronx, opposite the Cosmopolitan Church of the Lord Jesus, was renamed Pastor Robert Lewis Foley, Sr. Way.

Pastor Robert L. Foley, Sr., D. Min, D.D. Pastor of Cosmopolitan Church of the Lord Jesus in the Bronx, was a leader of the Bronx Health REACH coalition for almost twenty years, since its start as a community coalition led by the Institute for Family Health with the goal of eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities in the South Bronx. It is an honor richly deserved in the memory of a man who also had a vision of a new Bronx and who worked hard to make that vision a reality. This quote of his, which was printed at the bottom of the program, speaks volume of that commitment, “The clearest evidence of the greater love is seen whenever a person is willing to sacrifice their convenience, their comfort, and their own security for the well-being of another person.” 

Maxine Golub, Senior Vice President, Planning and Development for the Institute for Family Health (IFH) represented IFH and Bronx Health REACH at the street co-naming event dedicated in his memory. 

Below are Maxine's remarks: 

Good morning. Let me start by saying that my colleagues Charmaine Ruddock and Neil Calman were both so sorry that they couldn’t be here today. I know I speak for both of them, as well as for my colleagues at the Institute for Family Health and Bronx Health REACH. We were so fortunate to have had Reverend Foley as a leader in our work for almost 20 years.  

For those of you who don’t know, in 1999, the Institute received funding from the Centers for Disease Control to lead a project to eliminate racial disparities in health outcomes, with an initial focus on diabetes. We owe Reverend Foley’s involvement to my dear friend Joyce Davis. When I told her about the grant we had just received, and that we wanted to have a faith-based component, she told me we needed to meet with Reverend Foley. I remember it well – breakfast at the Riverdale Diner, telling him what we were thinking, and listening to him tell us what we needed to do.

And later on, when we met again, this time with Charmaine, our newly hired director, he pulled out a directory of churches of diverse denominations, ethnic and racial groups, and told us who to invite to the very first meeting, a pastor’s breakfast held at Cosmopolitan. Those discussions changed my life, and I believe, ultimately changed the lives of thousands of Bronx residents, as the pastors took up the call to teach their congregants about nutrition, exercise, disease management, and navigating the health care system. 

Of course, under Reverend Foley’s leadership, in partnership with Pastor Joe Bush and Deacon Davis, Bronx Health REACH ultimately became a grassroots effort committed to demanding a truly equitable health care system. He understood that to achieve that we needed to engage both the community and our elected representatives. Together he and Pastor Bush talked the Pastors into providing buses to carry 500 Bronx residents to Albany to talk about segregated care. He then urged us to file a complaint with the Attorney General, and instigated an effort to  have legislation sponsored in the State Assembly. But when Charmaine and I reminisced to plan these remarks, the thing we both remembered most fondly from that very first breakfast was the grits – the best either of us have ever had, before or since!

Over the years, Reverend Foley participated in numerous committees and events, always lending his unique perspective on economic and political realities mixed with history and faith. As far back as 2003, in a video that we made called Voices of Health Equality, he spoke about the browning of America and the impact on white majority culture. He gave our work a historical context, naming the movement to eliminate racial disparities in health the “civil rights movement” of our time.

Reverend Foley remained committed to the work of Bronx Health REACH from the day we met to his untimely death.  He never said no when we asked him to participate in a meeting or a panel, and he often leveraged his personal, political and professional connections to support our work. He invited, then challenged and cajoled others to become actively involved, reminding his colleagues that efforts to address racial and ethnic health disparities were long overdue, and that resources provided by grant funding could disappear at any time.

We were so lucky to have Reverend Foley in our corner for as long as we did. His words and actions changed our lives, and the lives of countless others, and we miss him dearly.  We are so proud to have shared in his work and now, the dedication of this street in his name.

WNBC Covers Bronx Health REACH Test and Trace team work in the Bronx

 

WNBC spoke with Bronx Health REACH's Test and Trace Community Health Worker Felix Rojas and the outreach work he is doing distributing signage and information about where people can go to get a COVID-19 test and/or COVID-19 vaccination. The Bronx Health REACH T2 team has distributed over 96,000 masks and hundreds of posters and palm cards to over 400 Bronx churches, mosques, schools,  bodegas, barber shops, supermarkets, nail salons and other Bronx businesses. COVID-19 webinars have been held with schools and community organizations.

Click here to view the story.

NY1 Coverage of Test and Trace (T2) work in the Bronx

 

NY1 did a story about REACH grantee Bronx Health REACH's work in the Bronx as part of the Test & Trace Corps, New York City’s comprehensive effort to test, trace, and treat every case of COVID-19 and schedule COVID-19 vaccine appointments for Bronx residents. Through a partnership with NYC Health + Hospitals and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Corps allows the City to immediately isolate and care for those who test positive for the virus and then rapidly track, assess, and quarantine anyone they may have been infected.

The Institute for Family Health's Bronx Health REACH is one of 38 community-based organizations (CBOs) that have been selected to distribute signage and information about where people can go to get a COVID-19 test and/or COVID-19 vaccination. As one of the Bronx organizations since August 2020, the Bronx Health REACH T2 team has distributed over 96,000 masks and hundreds of posters, palm cards to over 400 Bronx churches, mosques, schools as well as bodegas, barber shops, supermarkets, nail salons and other Bronx businesses. 

Click here to view.